This invention relates to a medical appliance for the treatment of a portion of blood vessel by means of ionizing radiation, comprising a catheter for percutaneous transluminal treatment of the blood vessel, an inflatable dilatation balloon surrounding the catheter, a radioactive radiation emitter, and means for advancing, and removing, the radioactive radiation emitter into, and from, the portion of the blood vessel, respectively it relates to a medical appliance for the treatment of a portion of blood vessel by means of ionizing radiation, comprising a catheter defining a perfusion channel, a radioactive radiation emitter, and means for advancing, and removing the radioactive radiation emitter into, and from, the portion of the blood vessel.
Atherosclerosis causes thickening and hardening of arteries and formation of deposits of plaque or plaque-ridden tissue within the arterial lumen. Such a disease is commonly treated by means of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty techniques involving, inter alia, the non-surgical widening of a passage through an artery by means of a balloon inflated to dilate the area of obstruction or the abrasion of the deposit by means of atherectomy. Unfortunately, the major limitation of these angioplasty or atherectomy techniques is the relatively important rate of restenosis. As it has been shown, the balloon angioplasty produces intimal and medial injury leading to excessive platelet aggregation and cell mediators activation followed by an elevated production of myocital growth factors. The cascade of these events, regulated by arterial wall cells nuclei, results in hyperproliferation of smooth muscle cells and migration of myocites and macrophages from the media layer towards the intima and further accelerates excessive neo-intimal formation leading to lumen narrowing. Many approaches to prevent this phenomenon have been tested, among which regimes of anticoagulation, antiplatelet therapy, vasodilators, and serum cholesterol level reducers, however, without appreciable therapeutic effect. As a further approach to this problem, it has been found that ionizing radiation could prove helpful in the treatment of unwanted cell proliferation which causes recurrent stenoses or occlusion after angioplasty.
The document International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Vol. 24 Suppl. 1, page 171, which reports Proceedings of the 34th Annual ASTRO Meeting of November 1992, refers to a study on the prophylaxis of intimal hyperplasia after stent implantation in peripheral arteries using endovascular irradiation. This study was directed to the frequency of recurrent stenoses or occlusions following stent implantation in peripheral arteries due to rapid intimal hyperplasia. To stop the proliferation of connective tissue an endovascular brachytherapy treatment was performed after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. The method describes stent implantation after recanalization done by percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, and placing of a 10 Ci Iridium gamma irradiation source into the implanted stent. No specific measures are described which would ensure circumferentially uniform radiation impact on the vessel wall. In this study the radial position of the irradiation source inside the stent was determined by gravity.
The document JACC Vol. 21 N.degree. 2, February 1993: 185A, reports a study of the effects of locally delivered ionizing radiation on the proliferation response to balloon overstretching injury. The injury model was balloon angioplasty of the central artery of the ear of rabbit and the ionizing radiation was delivered as high energy beta from a sealed SR90 source in a single dose (skin dose of 900 rad) after a scheduled time delay from the injury. The document further refers to a second protocol using porcine coronary injury model with transluminal intravascular irradiation. This publication does not disclose any specific measure to ensure an evenly distributed radiation in the vessel. U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,282 discloses a manual irradiation loading apparatus particularly suitable for intrabronchial and gynecological irradiation treatment. The apparatus comprises a lead or equivalent radiation shielding body with a longitudinally extending cable receiving passage therein. A cable having radioactive seeds provided on one end thereof is received in the cable-receiving passage. During storage, the portion of the cable bearing the radioactive source is located in the cable-receiving passage within the shielding body. During use, a catheter placed in a patient is joined to the shielding body and the portion of the cable bearing the radioactive source material is advanced through the cable-receiving passage in the shielding body and into the catheter. The radioactive seeds are slidingly positioned inside the catheter, however the radial position of the catheter within the vessel is not controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,395 describes, i.a., a catheter device for generating radioactive radiation into an artery for medicinal or repair purposes. This device comprises a catheter the tubular wall of which is collapsed at its distal end to form a sealing interface closing off the interior volume. Within this volume is located a sort of radioactive pill which can be urged forwardly by a piston connected to a flexible shaft controlled at the proximal end of the catheter, forward motion of the piston forcing the pill through the sealing interface in order to protrude from the distal end of the catheter and affect the artery. No means are provided with this catheter to secure a certain predetermined orientation of this catheter inside the geometry of the vessel section.
In addition to irradiation external to the site, the document WO 93/04735 also describes an apparatus for the treatment of an artery, comprising a radioactive dose and a means operatively connected to such a radioactive dose to bring it into a selected region of an artery. In a first embodiment, the apparatus comprises a sheath removably positioned over a windowed housing containing a radioactive dose and connected to a catheter shaft, whereby the relative motion between catheter shaft and sheath permits moving the windowed housing in and out of the sheath, thereby exposing the radioactive dose which may affect the selected place in the artery. In a second embodiment, the device comprises a catheter shaft surrounded by an angioplasty balloon on the outer surface of which are affixed radioactive elements intended to be forced into contact with the artery wall upon inflation of the balloon. The balloon has a perfusion channel to allow perfusion of blood e.g., from proximal of the balloon to distal of the balloon. Perfusion of blood is therefore possible even during the phase when the balloon is inflated and normal blood flow is interrupted. A third embodiment, substantially similar to the first one, includes a sheath intended to provide a shielding to a radioactive dose and a motion wire to provide slidable motion of the radioactive dose within the sheath. A fourth embodiment comprises an inflatable stent delivery balloon for expansion of a stent to which a radioactive dose is associated as a cladding, a coating or an additive within the stent material itself. A fifth embodiment shows a shrinkable tubing attached to a catheter shaft and a plurality of radioactive seeds located in the tubing where they are separated from each other by heat shrinking of the tubing which therefore encapsulates the seeds.
The sheath configuration of the first embodiment suffers from the same drawbacks as the configuration known from the previously mentioned publications. The radial orientation of the radioactive dose inside the vessel is determined by gravity. In the second embodiment, the radioactive elements affixed to the balloon and forced into contact with the artery wall, the radioactive elements provide uniform radiation impact on the artery wall only as far as specifically the area of the individual radioactive element is concerned. A circumferentially uniform radiation on the artery wall is not possible with this configuration. Besides that, the radioactive elements on the outer surface of the balloon are difficult to secure on the flexible balloon surface. Their fixture would have to meet severe safety requirements against loss under all conditions. This would lead to some specific complications. Finally radioactive elements and the fixture of these elements add unfavorably to the deflated profile of the balloon to pass through tight stenoses. The third embodiment with the slidable radioactive dose within the sheath shows the same problem as the first embodiment. It shows no means to control the transversal orientation of the sheath in the vessel. The fourth embodiment, the cladded expanding stent, represents regarding uniformity of radiation the same unfavorable situation as the configuration of the balloon with affixed radioactive elements. Finally, the fifth embodiment adds nothing to the solution of the positioning problem, it mainly refers to the problem of how to safely secure the radioactive seeds to a catheter shaft.
In all these devices, the radiation cannot be uniform, either because there is absolutely no possibility of having the radioactive element correctly positioned within the artery, or because the radioactive element irregularly bears against the vessel wall.
The document DE 3620123-A1 discloses an apparatus for measuring and irradiating body cavities which permits the placing and positioning of a light conductor at the center of a cavity in order to achieve homogeneous lighting thereof via a dispersing agent. To this effect, a light conductor is located in a tubular catheter surrounded by two optically transparent centering flexible balloons at a distance from each other and which are inflated by a dispersing agent in order to have them rest against the wall of the body cavity. The portion of the catheter which is located between the balloons is stiffer than the rest of the catheter to avoid modification of the distance between the two balloons, for instance due to curving of the catheter. The system is said to be usable for a blood vessel, but the system needs a dispersing agent and two balloons proximal and distal of the radiation source to accommodate the dispersing agent between the balloons. The two balloons are occlusion balloons. Occlusion balloons have to be resilient to safely fulfill their task in a vessel of unknown exact shape and size. Because of this resiliency, occlusion balloons can not be used simultaneously as dilatation balloons. Resilient balloons would overstretch the vessel wall when used with the higher pressures that are required for a successful angioplasty. Of course the doctor has control over the inflation pressure with resilient balloons same as with dilatation balloons, but this is not sufficient for safe angioplasty. With a resilient balloon the doctor has no control over the inflated diameter or over the shape to which the balloon is inflated.